The sign along New Jersey’s border pointed at outside businesses looking to establish a foothold here is a single word: Closed.

One of the casualties of the Democratic civil war that broke out following the controversy over a tax credit program has been powerful tools to lure new businesses to New Jersey.

The Grow New Jersey Assistance and Economic Redevelopment and Growth Grant programs, which offered thousands of dollars per jobs in tax credits and incentives for development, expired midnight Sunday. The Democratic-controlled state Legislature overwhelmingly passed a measure to expand the programs, but Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat, promised to veto the proposal.

“They were the staples of the economic incentives in bringing various businesses here. Now that we don’t have anything it’s a huge concern to the business community,” said Michael Egenton, executive vice president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

“If you’re a company outside of the state looking in right now with what’s just happened and what’s not happening, that kind of instability makes a business nervous,” Egenton said. “Damage has been done.”

Gridlock on a new program came after a January audit found widespread problems and insufficient oversight of the roughly $11 billion in approved tax breaks. The report said the state’s Economic Development Authority may have “improperly awarded, miscalculated, overstate and overpaid” tax credits to a number of companies involving billions in state funding.

Murphy launched independent hearings into the awards, which quickly focused on businesses tied to George Norcross III and other entities connected with him and his insurance company, Conner Strong & Buckelew.

Right now, he conceded, “there is technically nothing in place” when it comes to a state corporate tax incentive program.

“But there’s a significant amount of lag when you’ve applied for something,” Murphy said. “So there’s not an immediate July 2 crisis. But we need to get on it sooner than later.”

State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin seemed as optimistic as Murphy on a deal.

“We’re gonna continue to try to work to get something done," Coughlin, D-Middlesex, told NJ Advance Media following the governor’s comments.

But business advocates argue the public spat between Murphy and Norcross’ closest ally in the Legislature, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester has been enough to paint New Jersey as a tough place to start or expand a business.

“The way it was handled and how EDA was sort of raked through the coals,” he added. “To say that everybody is sort of guilty until proven innocent across the board is sort of the feeling out there.”

Not everybody agrees.

“If I were a New Jersey business person, I would actually feel better that the programs have been suspended until all of the sculduggery has been resolved,” said Greg LeRoy, the executive director of Good Jobs First, a good-government group that tracks state tax incentives across the nation.

“When you lay a billion dollars on a handful of politically wired companies, you’re dissing everybody else,” he said. “I think suspending the programs until the mess gets cleaned up is a fine business climate signal.”

And Murphy’s administration pushed back on the suggestion negative headlines scared away business development.

“I don’t see any evidence of any damage,” Murphy spokesman Darryl Isherwood said. “If they can point to it, I would love to see it.”

And on whether it’s hurting the state to be without an incentive program, Isherwood said the EDA "will continue to process any application that (came) in by June 30, making any lapse in the program far from catastrophic. Incentives are a necessary tool in the economic development tool box, but they are not the only tool.”

Besides, the program that just expired didn’t show spectacular results, Isherwood argued.

New Jersey ranked 49th in the nation in wage growth between 2007 and 2017, he said. And the state added only about 50,000 new jobs during that time period.

When Murphy and lawmakers will hash out a compromise is an open question.

Neither the governor or legislative leaders have said they have any plans to meet in the coming days.